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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 25 "They've been through a lot, and they've been through some tough games, long seasons, and know what it's like to play in the confer- ence," sophomore guard Carsen Edwards said. "They know how not to get too high and how not to get too low. I'm just going to fly behind them and play my game." EXPECTING TO WIN Purdue lost an enormous piece from last season's Big Ten champi- onship team, as All-American and Player-of-the-Year finalist Caleb Swanigan departed for the NBA after a dominant sophomore season. But the Boilermakers' strong, deep, experienced and well-rounded senior class provides the founda- tion for what should be another very good team. Preseason projections generally have Purdue lumped in with North- western and Minnesota in the 2-3-4 range in the Big Ten, with Michigan State being the conference's consensus favorite. Riding a run of 38 consecutive weeks spent ranked in the AP poll, Purdue opened the season 21st in the coaches' top 25 poll. Purdue's high-water mark during prognosticator season came from Blue Ribbon, which tabbed the Boilermakers 14th in its preseason yearbook. "We definitely expect to be pretty good, and I think a big part of the (preseason) will be us having that chip on our shoulder because we are the reigning Big Ten champs," guard and co-captain Mathias said. "People are going to be coming for us even though we might be a little underrated at this point, and with us losing Biggie, people might count us out, but we are still the champions and have to have that edge. People have to come take it from us and we have to go take it, too, so we have to have that edge every day." There will be challenges. On top of a Big Ten schedule that opens with a trip to Maryland at the start of December (because of scheduling issues with Madison Square Garden, host of this year's Big Ten Tournament) and a home game against ranked Northwestern before resuming in January, Purdue will face a difficult non-conference season highlighted by a Big Ten/ACC Challenge meet- ing with Rick Pitino-less-but-still-ranked Louisville, as well as a Crossroads Classic meeting with Butler. It will travel to Marquette for the Gavitt Games and the Baha- mas for the Battle 4 Atlantis, where the field includes two top-five-type opponents: Villanova and Arizona. "We know that we have an opportunity with our 2017-18 PURDUE MEN'S BASKETBALL ROSTER No. Player Position Year Height Weight Hometown/Last school 1 Aaron Wheeler Forward Freshman 6-9 200 Stamford, Conn./Brewster Academy (N.H.) 3 Carsen Edwards Guard Sophomore 6-0 190 Atascocita, Texas/Atascocita 5 Eden Ewing Forward Junior 6-9 215 Richmond, Texas/Tyler (Texas) Junior College 11 P.J. Thompson Guard Senior 5-10 185 Indianapolis/Brebeuf 12 Vincent Edwards Forward Senior 6-8 225 Middletown, Ohio/Middletown 14 Ryan Cline Guard Junior 6-6 195 Carmel, Ind./Carmel 15 Tommy Luce Guard Sophomore 5-10 150 Jeffersonville, Ind./Jeffersonville 20 Nojel Eastern Guard Freshman 6-6 220 Chicago/Evanston 23 Jacquil Taylor Center Junior 6-10 240 Cambridge, Mass./Beaver Country Day 24 Grady Eifert Forward Junior 6-6 220 Fort Wayne/Bishop Dwenger 31 Dakota Mathias Guard Senior 6-4 200 Elida, Ohio/Elida 32 Matt Haarms Center Redshirt Freshman 7-3 250 Amsterdam, Netherlands/Sunrise Christian (Kansas) 44 Isaac Haas Center Senior 7-2 290 Hokes Bluff, Ala./Hokes Bluff 55 Sasha Stefanovic Guard Freshman 6-4 195 Crown Point, Ind./Crown Point Tom Campbell One of Purdue's most dynamic players, Carsen Edwards figures to make a big impact in Year 2.